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Manager/Producer Steven Adams brings a wealth of creative and practical talents to the Buffalo 8 banner. His passion is representing talent and creative companies while developing new business platforms and projects. Experience includes the role of Executive Producer for Paris-based VFX house, BUF on such studio features as Thor, Avatar & Life of Pi . Steven is a sought after speaker and moderator whose recent events include C21 Drama Summit West, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, The Blackhouse Foundation, The March on Washington Film Festival, ITVFest, Stage 32 – Film Con, VIP Film Summit – Washington, D.C., HollyShorts Festival, WGA – LATINX Committee and Cannes Film Festival.

Josh Bakken, the Head of Innovation at Tapas Media, has over 20 years experience building and leading innovative and award-winning products, including 11 years in the game and Free-to-X (Play, Read) industries. Prior to Tapas, Josh created a first-of-its-kind, real-money, game-of-skill series for digital photography called Snapshot Scholar while a Producer at Hot Shot Media. In addition, Josh was also the Producer of the award-winning MMO game Dream of Mirror Online for Aeria Games where he led the game to record-setting sales. Additionally, Josh as worked for a number of other innovative and exciting consumer product companies such as EA, Hasbro Interactive, Leapfrog, and others. Josh obtained his BA in Legal Studies from The University of California at Berkeley.

Robert “Bobby” Chinn (born 3 April 1964) is an internationally renowned television presenter, chef, restaurateur and cookbook author who has lived in Vietnam since 1996. He is half Egyptian and half Chinese. He runs the restaurant Bobby Chinn. Over his career, he has cooked for a number of personalities, including Bill Clinton in 2011 and Bob Dylan on his Asian Tour. In 2013, Bobby Chinn moved to London to open his new restaurant, the House of Ho. In June 2014, Chinn was nominated as the ambassador of Tourism for Vietnam by the Ministry of Tourism Sports and Culture.

Dekker is an entertainment futurist working on the bleeding edge of technology and storytelling. As chief creative officer of Immersive studio Clever Fox his oversight on brand experiences with Star Wars, Bose, Warner Bros Records, and Disney has made him a go-to expert in VR. He directed and co-directed the first two VR documentaries for Participant Media (An Inconvenient Truth, The Help, Spotlight) as well as the first VR concert film at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Heather Hansen, a contemporary performance artist and dancer in New Orleans, has come up with an elegant and creative way to capture her dancing motions on paper – she gets up-close and personal with a big piece of paper and some charcoal.

For the performance aspect of her work, Hansen invites observers to watch her dance on a huge piece of paper. As she dances and prostates herself on the piece of paper, she marks it with charcoal, gradually building a beautiful diagram of her seemingly ritual dance. She has also created a video called “Emptied Gestures” that features studio recordings of her graceful and dramatic work for those that cannot see it live.

Adi Hasak served as creator, executive producer and showrunner on USA Network’s critically acclaimed crime thriller “Eyewitness,” which he set up as a straight-to-series order. The series, which premiered in the U.S. in 2016, was adapted by Hasak from the Norwegian drama “Øyevitne”.

Hasak also served as creator and executive producer on the hit NBC drama “Shades of Blue,” which he wrote on spec and got green lit straight-to- series, starring Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta, directed by Barry Levinson. The hit series’ third season premiered in June 2018.
Hasak will serve as creator, executive producer and showrunner on the upcoming adaption of the German format “Tempel” which is straight-to- series with Dynamic Television.

Furthermore, Hasak and his Adi TV Studios banner are fast tracking several additional projects to be packaged straight-to-series.
Hasak was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and raised in Israel and the U.S. Following seven years in the military, Hasak worked as a journalist before coming to Hollywood and writing for television and film.

In addition, Hasak was a frequent collaborator with Luc Besson. They jointly wrote and produced “3 Days to Kill,” starring Kevin Costner, and “From Paris With Love,” starring John Travolta. Hasak also wrote “Killer Elite,” which was the original pilot for “Generation Kill.”

Chang Kim is the CEO/founder of Tapas Media. Prior, he was a product manager at Google, running Blogger.com. Chang joined Google when the company he co-founded, TNC (a leading blogging software company in Korea), was acquired by Google. Previously, Chang was at Samsung Mobile, in charge of Samsung’s mobile content strategy.

Maxine Lapiduss isa celebrated TV writer/producer, serial entrepreneur,arts advocate, creative strategist, and now, as Co-Founder/CEO ofStoryverse Studios, creating a new paradigm for how stories are told and shared in the digital age.

Tonya Lewis Lee is a producer, author and advocate for women’s health. In 2012, Tonya co-founded ToniK Productions after working for over a decade as an independent producer through her company, Madstone Company Inc where she produced scripted and unscripted work for companies such as Disney TV Animation, Nickelodeon, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and OraTV. In the years that ToniK has been in business it has produced three films and has numerous projects in various stages of development. Most recently, ToniK finished production on their latest film, MONSTER, based on the Walter Dean Myers novel of the same name. ToniK also acquired the rights to Dick Lehr’s Young Adult novel TRELL and set Jamal Joseph to adapt. She is also the Executive Producer of the hit Spike Lee Netflix Original Series She’s Gotta Have It, which is in post production for season 2. Through ToniK Tonya produces film, television and digital media content working with major studios, digital networks, television networks all the while collaborating with visionary directors, writers, actors, financiers.

Tonya is also an accomplished writer of several children’s books that have sold over a million copies, an adult novel and film and television scripts. Most notably, Please Baby Please has entertained pre-schoolers for over ten years since its original publication.

Tonya also founded HealthyYouNow.com(HYN), a health, nutrition and wellness platform designed to deliver health information, inspiration and products to women. Further Tonya founded Movita Organics, a vitamin supplement for women in 2017. Tonya launched HYN and Movita after she was inspired by her work as the spokesperson for A Healthy Baby Begins With You campaign out of the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. Through her health advocacy work Tonya works with Planned Parenthood, Bedsider, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Greater Than Aids, the Kansas Health Foundation and many other organizations aimed at improving the health and wellness of women and underserved communities.

Tonya has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a JD from the University of Virginia. She is the mother of two children, a daughter, 22 and a son 20 and lives in New York City with her husband.

Michael Son, Tapas’s Editor-in-Chief, graduated from UC Berkeley where he facilitated a course on publishing creator owned comics. Shortly thereafter, he joined Tapas, formally known as Tapastic, where he helped nurture a growing community of independent creators, starting with eight and growing it out to what is now over 30,000. As Senior Editor in Chief at Tapas Media, he has helmed notable projects such as Cheshire Crossing with Andy Weir (author of The Martian) and Sarah Andersen (creator of Adulthood is a Myth), as well as Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, a modern adaptation of Little Women with an all-star art team produced jointly by Hachette.

Dr. Erroll G. Southers is an internationally recognized expert on counterterrorism, public safety, infrastructure protection, and homeland security. He is the Director of the Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies Program at the University of Southern California, where he is also a Professor of the Practice of Governance.
Dr. Southers is the Managing Director for Counter-Terrorism & Infrastructure Protection at TAL Global, an international security consulting firm. There he directs security assessments addressing transportation modalities, stadium venues, and educational and cultural institutions.

As head of “yes Studios” Stern oversees sales, distribution and development of premium Israeli content for international platforms. Stern is an international television veteran, having managed all aspects of content acquisitions, channel creation and branding across platforms in her pervious role in Israel’s “yesTV” – a multichannel television provider.  yes Studios is known for its Netflix smash hit Series Fauda, currently in production on season 3.

Tamara Tunie is an American film, stage, and television actress, director, and producer. She is best known for her portrayal of attorney Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, and medical examiner Melinda Warner on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. From 2000 to 2007 (and again briefly in 2009 and 2010), she appeared on both series simultaneously. Tunie has also appeared in film, most notably playing the key supporting role of Margaret Thomason in the 2012 film Flight.

Carl Weber is a prolific American novelist recognized for his examination of Urban American experiences. Dubbed the “King of Drama,” Weber boasts more than 26 novels – 14 of which have been on the New York Times bestseller list, with others making the USA Today and Essence magazines bestseller lists.
Carl has a partnership with Queen Latifahs One Unit to develop 4 – 6 films a year and television series based on his IP.